Play to your strengths: How to tackle the COVID downturn

Aaron Johnson, VP of marketing and customer strategy, Accumold, writes about how to navigate a different world in building relationships with medical device manufacturers during COVID-19.

As we work through the wake of the pandemic lockdown, I guess it is fair to say that as individuals and businesses we have all had time to contemplate and learn some lessons – including me personally and for Accumold as well.

Typically, Accumold attends numerous trade shows and one-to-one meetings with customers and potential customers alike. For the last few months, this has obviously not been possible, and so we have faced the issues, and adapted.

The keys to success in keeping a business going in times like this are not magic tricks, but redoubling efforts company-wide to emphasise your strengths, and keep working with customers in a pragmatic way that engages with them constructively and sensibly.

We work with customers from across the world that require sometimes impossibly small and complex plastics parts for medical applications. Most, if not all, of these companies have had to put in place plans to mitigate disturbances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. For most there were two possible courses of action, on or off (with off not being an option), and they have had to work with their supply chains to create solutions where possible.

One of the areas I think will demand significant attention over the upcoming months and years is supply chains. There will be numerous companies especially, some backed by national governmental initiatives, that will look to address the vulnerabilities of long and unwieldy international supply chains. In addition, it will be seen as desirable to cut down the actual number of areas of design and product development that are outsourced to third parties.

For Accumold, these trends play to our inherent strengths.

We are a successful micro moulder that produces parts and components that few companies across the world can – a product of our history as a micro moulding innovator stretching back over 30 years, and possible because of a knowledgeable and dedicated team.

Our medical device customers don’t view us as a manufacturer, but more a consultancy that also manufactures. They buy into our knowledge of micro moulding to influence the product development process from design to automated assembly.

They see us as strategic partners as we can mitigate risk of sub-optimal products or products that cannot attain exacting tolerances. This is possible because we are truly vertically integrated, with the experience and knowledge of micro tooling experts, micro moulders, QA/QC personnel, and automated assembly / packaging teams are all combined to optimise outcomes under one roof.

This also means our customers can rationalise the number of companies in their supply chains, reducing vulnerabilities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also more generally promoting the achievement of products that are right first time, fit for purpose, and manufactured in a timely and cost-effective fashion.

During lockdown, barring the inability to interact on a face-to-face basis, we have, if anything, seen a strengthening of the bond between us and the medical device companies that we serve. It is at times like this that reliance on tried and tested procedures and methods of design and manufacture become even more critical.

Our customer facing positioning has been to simply re-enforce our credentials and credibility; such as true vertical integration and the expertise to provide best-in-class advice concerning Design for Micro Moulding (DfMM).

This is the key to success in micro moulding, in ensuring robust and long-term relationships with customers, and to being chosen as a micro product development partner especially in times of uncertainly and instability. DfMM is an art and a science, and it is something that requires an innate understanding of the vagaries and unpredictability of micro moulding.

Without a certain and secure understanding of DfMM, costly and time-consuming failures are almost inevitable, and especially in times of economic fragility, need to be avoided at all costs.